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Patient and provider communication about employment following a cancer diagnosis

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Abstract

Purpose

Cancer treatment can precipitate functional limitations that restrict survivors’ ability to work. Yet, it is unclear whether healthcare providers discuss the potential for employment limitations with their patients. We assessed the frequency of patient-provider communication about employment, from the perspectives of survivors, and examined whether receiving a treatment summary was associated with employment communication.

Methods

Cancer survivors who were working at diagnosis were identified from the Health Information National Trends Survey-4, conducted in 2014 (n = 290). Separate multivariable regression analyses examined the associations between survivor characteristics and employment communication and receipt of a treatment summary and employment communication.

Results

Among cancer survivors who were working at diagnosis, 62.69% (95% CI 54.42–70.95) reported discussing employment with any healthcare provider at any time since diagnosis. Younger cancer survivors and those more recently treated were more likely to ever have employment discussions. Survivors who received a treatment summary were also more likely to ever discuss employment with any healthcare provider than survivors who did not receive a treatment summary (OR = 3.47, 95% CI 1.02–11.84).

Conclusions

Approximately two thirds of cancer survivors who were working at diagnosis ever discussed employment with a healthcare provider. Thus, for a sizable portion of cancer survivors, the potential impact of cancer on employment is never discussed with any healthcare provider.

Implications for Cancer Survivors

Efforts are needed to proactively screen patients for cancer-related work limitations, empower patients to discuss employment concerns with their healthcare providers, and develop interventions that support survivors’ goals for working throughout treatment and recovery.

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Funding

This study did not receive outside funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Healthcare Assessment Research Branch, Healthcare Delivery Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Room 3E438, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA

    Janet S. de Moor, Erin E. Kent, Sarah Kobrin, Cheryl Altice & K. Robin Yabroff

  2. ICF, Rockville, MD, USA

    Kisha Coa

  3. Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Carmen Moten

Authors
  1. Janet S. de Moor
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  2. Kisha Coa
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  3. Erin E. Kent
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  4. Carmen Moten
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  5. Sarah Kobrin
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  7. K. Robin Yabroff
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janet S. de Moor.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. There are no financial disclosures from any authors and this work had no specific funding. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Cancer Institute or the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Not applicable because the article does not contain studies with human participants.

Additional information

K Yabroff is currently affiliated with the Surveillance & Health Services Research Program of the American Cancer Society. C Moten is currently affiliated with the Division of Extramural Activities, National Institute on Aging. C Altice is currently affiliated with the Division of MCH Workforce Development, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Service Administration.

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de Moor, J.S., Coa, K., Kent, E.E. et al. Patient and provider communication about employment following a cancer diagnosis. J Cancer Surviv 12, 813–820 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-018-0718-4

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